M3 Wave to unveil NEXUS wave energy device

M3 Wave, an Oregon-based wave energy developer, plans to unveil the design of their NEXUS wave energy device in the following months, in an effort to win US Department of Energy’s Wave Energy Prize.

As reported earlier, the company has been selected among 20 semi-finalist teams for the Wave Energy Prize Competition, intended to encourage the development of game-changing wave energy conversion technology.

M3 Wave plans to unveil their competition entry, codenamed NEXUS, in the months to come, according to the company’s press release. The device is a variant of the M3 Wave’s deep-water, high power DMP/APEX technology, and has been under development over the last 2 years.

NEXUS wave energy device doesn’t have exposed mechanical or electrical components, and as the company stated, it is very similar to the APEX device that M3 Wave deployed in the Pacific Ocean off Astoria.

Mike Morrow, M3 Wave’s President and CEO, said: “The beauty of NEXUS is we enjoy an exponential increase in wave energy input to the device as we move closer to the ocean surface. This means we can get significantly more power output from the same APEX or DMP if we integrate it into a NEXUS system.

“We are honored to be among only 20 teams in the world who have been selected and we look forward to pushing the envelope toward the breakthrough performance that has been so elusive for earlier generations of marine renewable technologies.”

M3 Wave announced that the dynamics modeling support for their NEXUS device will come from Oregon State University’s Northwest National Renewable Energy Center while materials and fabrication engineering will be done in collaboration with Ershigs in Ridgefield, Washington.

Image: M3 Wave/Illustration